Taking your critical accounting to the cloud without risk or disruption

Customers won’t lose anything – they will have a cloud version of everything they've been using.

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The cloud offers a compelling set of benefits, but moving accounting to the cloud without careful consideration could increase an organisation’s risk of disruption, feature loss and errors.

This is according to Peresoft founder and MD Bobby Perel, who says: “Organisations depend on consistency in their accounting software. When you’re dealing with thousands of transactions and gigabytes of data, you can’t risk losing something or missing a deadline as you transition to the cloud. Nor can you risk making the disruptive move to a new cloud-based accounting solution only to find out too late that it is slow or doesn’t include tools and features your company relies on.”

“The significance of accounting software in your company's IT infrastructure is widely acknowledged. The timely execution of month-end procedures holds pivotal importance, mitigating the risk of complications. The critical nature of accurate tax and VAT returns, a non-negotiable for SARS, underscores the potential consequences of inaccuracies,” he says.

He cautions against moving to the cloud simply because of the hype around it. “Embracing evolving technological trends often appears enticing, fuelled by buzzwords used by IT salespersons to highlight potential efficiency gains. This dynamic becomes concerning, especially when urged to alter your accounting software to move with the times,” he says.

Perel adds that many cloud-based options are hosted in the public cloud, which for some organisations is too risky in terms of compliance, data sovereignty and data availability.

Perel says: “That said, cloud functionality can support remote work, and greater speed and efficiency. The key to benefiting from the best of both worlds is to take software that has been trusted for 40 years, and put exactly the same software into a private cloud, for a seamless, consistent experience.”

Perel highlight’s Peresoft’s role in building Sage 300 features that over 6 000 global businesses depend on. “Peresoft wrote Cashbook, which is central to anyone’s accounting, bank reconciliation and VAT returns,” he says. “We’ve taken exactly those features into the cloud with Sage 300cloud. Nothing changes. It's a very powerful, proper three-tier architecture using exceptional technology."

Perel began the Cashbook development journey 40 years ago by dissecting manually updated ledgers. In 1983, the conception of an automated Cashbook marked a pioneering step. Years of relentless dedication converged in Peresoft's Cashbook emerging as the unrivalled benchmark in Cashbook technology, seamlessly integrating with the company’s bank statement. Automating the cashbook took an extended month-long process to a streamlined single-day operation – a significant milestone for accounting. Characterised by minimal user interaction and comprehensive bank integration, Cashbook simplified otherwise intricate bank reconciliation, ensuring efficiency and precision.

Perel notes that being 'in the cloud' could prove a step backwards if organisations can no longer match the prowess of Peresoft's Cashbook.

However, Peresoft's cloud-based Cashbook now makes migrating an existing, trusted framework to the cloud a viable reality. The cloud version has been available for four years, providing complete freedom of choice and the same tools and features organisations count on. Available on a private cloud, on-premises or both, users can switch between them or use both simultaneously.

Perel says: “We built a stable and trusted product over 40 years, and we’ve taken exactly that product into the cloud. Customers won’t lose anything – they will have a cloud version of everything they've been using. We wrote the software to be exactly the same. Moving to sage300 cloud is seamless, and not at all complex. Sage 300cloud Web Screens run parallel to the Sage desktop, with the same menu and look and feel. Customers don’t need weeks of training, and importantly, they don’t have to convert their databases. The magic of sage300 cloud is you have it on-premises and in the cloud – and they’re the same.”